The discovery of sodium borohydride (SBH) (see equations 1-4 below) paved way for an efficient method for the generation of hydrogen. The hydrolysis of SBH in water (see equation 2) is slow, which is suppressed further by the addition of sodium hydroxide. The hydrolysis can be accelerated by the addition of mineral acids or catalytic amounts of metal halides (see equations 3 and 4). The active catalyst is believed to be the metal borides and the reaction is highly exothermic. As discussed, the stoichiometric equations are as follows:

Hydrogen is currently the environmentally desirable fuel of choice that can be used in internal combustion engines or electrochemically oxidized efficiently in proton exchange membrane (PEM), or other types of fuel cells. Current available hydrogen storage processes are adequate, but either may be improved in efficiency or are relatively not practical for widespread usage. Accordingly, there is an interest in research initiated by H. C. Brown regarding ruthenium-mediated process and other methods for the generation of hydrogen from sodium borohydride. Several applications are known and have appeared in the literature. However, there are issues that should be addressed or improved upon before sodium borohydride becomes an alternate for the currently available sources of energy. For example, controlling the relatively high exothermic nature of the metal halide-catalyzed hydrolysis of sodium borohydride and the efficient recycling of the resultant borate to sodium borohydride would be useful for the success of sodium borohydride as an effective hydrogen source for a wide variety of applications, such as distributed power generation and transportation.